St John Chapter x : Verses 31-42
Contents
- St John Chapter x : Verses Verses 31-42. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate);
- Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)
St John Chapter x : Verses Verses 31-42
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| The Jews then took up stones to stone him. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
32 Jesus answered them: Many good works I have shewed you from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me?
33 The Jews answered him: For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, maketh thyself God.
34 Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law: I said you are gods?
35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God was spoken, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36 Do you say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?
37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
38 But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.
39 They sought therefore to take him; and he escaped out of their hands.
40 And he went again beyond the Jordan, into that place where John was baptizing first; and there he abode.
41 And many resorted to him, and they said: John indeed did no sign.
42 But all things whatsoever John said of this man, were true. And many believed in him.
31 Ἐβάστασαν ⸀οὖν πάλιν λίθους οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἵνα λιθάσωσιν αὐτόν.31 Sustulerunt ergo lapides Judaei, ut lapidarent eum.32 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Πολλὰ ⸂ἔργα καλὰ ἔδειξα ὑμῖν⸃ ἐκ τοῦ ⸀πατρός· διὰ ποῖον αὐτῶν ἔργον ⸂ἐμὲ λιθάζετε⸃;32 Respondit eis Jesus : Multa bona opera ostendi vobis ex Patre meo : propter quod eorum opus me lapidatis?33 ἀπεκρίθησαν αὐτῷ οἱ ⸀Ἰουδαῖοι· Περὶ καλοῦ ἔργου οὐ λιθάζομέν σε ἀλλὰ περὶ βλασφημίας, καὶ ὅτι σὺ ἄνθρωπος ὢν ποιεῖς σεαυτὸν θεόν.33 Responderunt ei Judaei : De bono opere non lapidamus te, sed de blasphemia; et quia tu homo cum sis, facis teipsum Deum.34 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Οὐκ ἔστιν γεγραμμένον ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ὑμῶν ⸀ὅτι Ἐγὼ εἶπα· Θεοί ἐστε;34 Respondit eis Jesus : Nonne scriptum est in lege vestra, Quia ego dixi : Dii estis?35 εἰ ἐκείνους εἶπεν θεοὺς πρὸς οὓς ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ οὐ δύναται λυθῆναι ἡ γραφή,35 Si illos dixit deos, ad quos sermo Dei factus est, et non potest solvi Scriptura :36 ὃν ὁ πατὴρ ἡγίασεν καὶ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι Βλασφημεῖς, ὅτι εἶπον· Υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ εἰμι;36 quem Pater sanctificavit, et misit in mundum vos dicitis : Quia blasphemas, quia dixi : Filius Dei sum?37 εἰ οὐ ποιῶ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ πατρός μου, μὴ πιστεύετέ μοι·37 Si non facio opera Patris mei, nolite credere mihi.38 εἰ δὲ ποιῶ, κἂν ἐμοὶ μὴ πιστεύητε τοῖς ἔργοις ⸀πιστεύετε, ἵνα γνῶτε καὶ ⸀γινώσκητε ὅτι ἐν ἐμοὶ ὁ πατὴρ κἀγὼ ἐν ⸂τῷ πατρί⸃.38 Si autem facio : etsi mihi non vultis credere, operibus credite, ut cognoscatis, et credatis quia Pater in me est, et ego in Patre.39 ἐζήτουν οὖν ⸂πάλιν αὐτὸν⸃ πιάσαι· καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν.39 Quaerebant ergo eum apprehendere : et exivit de manibus eorum.40 Καὶ ἀπῆλθεν πάλιν πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου εἰς τὸν τόπον ὅπου ἦν Ἰωάννης τὸ πρῶτον βαπτίζων, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐκεῖ.40 Et abiit iterum trans Jordanem, in eum locum ubi erat Joannes baptizans primum, et mansit illic;41 καὶ πολλοὶ ἦλθον πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ἔλεγον ὅτι Ἰωάννης μὲν σημεῖον ἐποίησεν οὐδέν,41 et multi venerunt ad eum, et dicebant : Quia Joannes quidem signum fecit nullum.42 πάντα δὲ ὅσα εἶπεν Ἰωάννης περὶ τούτου ἀληθῆ ἦν. καὶ ⸂πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ⸃.42 Omnia autem quaecumque dixit Joannes de hoc, vera erant. Et multi crediderunt in eum.
Annotations
31. The Jews then took up stones to stone him, as a blasphemer. ➤The Jews show in this their hypocrisy, malignity, and hatred of Christ, and that they did not honestly, but craftily and insidiously, ask Him whether He were the Christ. But Christ as being God kept them from casting on Him the stones which they held in their hands. ➤“Hard as stones,” says S. Augustine, “they rushed to the stones.” Mystically, says S. Hilary (de Trinit. lib. vii.) “And now also heretics hurl the stones of their words, to cast down, if they can, Christ from His throne; inspired, no doubt, by Lucifer, who aimed at obtaining this throne of Godhead, and therefore grudged it to Christ, and is active in taking it away by means of heretics.”
32. Jesus answered them: Many good works I have shewed you from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me? He replied not to the words, for none had been spoken, but to the crafty intention of the Jews. He answered, i.e., He asked them for what cause do ye wish to stone Me? By works He means the miracles which He had wrought by the authority and supernatural aid of God the Father. And He thus quietly reproves their ingratitude and malignity. I have healed, He would say, your blind, and lame, and sick, by My Divine power, when destitute of all human aid; why do ye ungratefully repay My many kindnesses by evil treatment, and wish to stone Me?
33. The Jews answered him: For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, maketh thyself God. “The Jews” (says S. Augustine) “understood that which the Arians understand not. For they felt that it could not be said, ‘I and the Father are one,’ unless the Father and the Son were equal.”
34. Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law: I said you are gods? (Ps. LXXXI. 6), I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High. The word in Hebrew is plural. God is called Elohim, as ruling and governing the world, and as the judge and punisher of evil-doing. Whence angels and judges who share this power are called gods, not by nature or by hypostatical union (as Christ), but by participating in the Divine judgments (see Ex. vii.1, 22:28; Ps. vii. 6, in the Hebrew Elohim). But there, as S. Hilary observes (Lib. vii. de Trinit.), the word Elohim is limited by the context, so as to make it clear that the word does not signify God, but angels or judges. And so in Ps. LXXXI., “God hath stood in the congregation of gods: and being in the midst of them he judgeth gods.” The gods who are judged are men or angels, He who judges them is the One True God. “Just as Christ here,” says S. Augustine, “judges as God the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews, who were gods, so to speak, upon earth.” On this account He quotes this psalm which is in Hebrew Elohim, judges. Elohim, the highest of all, judges the earthly rulers who are under Him. This is supported by the Chaldee Targum, which explains, “Ye are gods, and are all the children of the Highest;” “ye are the angels of the high God.” And that which is properly said of angels is extended to all Israelites and the faithful, for they are the sons of God. But when the word “Elohim” is used “absolutely” (without limitation) it signifies the One and True God.
Christ therefore, instead of overthrowing the opinion of the Jews, rather confirms it.
35. If he called them gods, to whom the word of God was spoken, and the scripture cannot be broken;
If He called them gods unto whom the word of God came, whom the Word of God appointed judges and gave them authority by Moses and his successors, and commanded them to judge rightly as partaking His authority, making them (says Euthymius) gods, as it were, upon earth.
and the Scripture cannot be broken: no one, i.e., can take from them the name of judges, which the irrevocable word of Scripture has given them.
36. Do you say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God? This is an argument from the less to the greater. “If judges, who only participate in the power of God, are rightly called gods, much more can I be called God, who am the Very Word of God.”
S. Augustine and Bede more acutely, but less to the point, maintain that the force of the argument is this, if they who are merely partakers of the word of God are called gods, much more am I, who am not merely a partaker of the word of God, but the Word of God Itself.
Note here that the words, “him whom the Father hath sanctified,” have several meanings.
(1.) He to whom the Father hath communicated the sanctity wherewith He is holy, whom the Father, when He begat Him, made to be holy, says S. Augustine. For 👉God the Father who is holy begat the Son who is holy. So Bede, Toletus, and others. The Son is therefore holy in His generation and essence.
(2.) The Father sanctified Christ as man, by means of 👉 the Hypostatical Union; for by this (speaking accurately) is the manhood of Christ sanctified in the highest degree. For by the very act wherewith the Person of the Word (Itself uncreated and infinite Sanctity) assumed the humanity, and united it hypostatically to Itself, It clearly sanctified it, and thus infused into its soul the pre-eminent sanctity of charity, grace, and all other virtues. And so S. Hilary says, “Jesus was sanctified to be His Son, since S. Paul says, ‘He was predestinated to be the Son of God with power, by the Spirit of sanctification.’ ” And so too S. Chrysostom, and S. Athanasius (de Incarn. Verb. sub. init.) “Sanctified” is therefore the same as “sealed,” as I said chap. 6:27.
(3.) Theophylact says, “He sanctified, that is He sanctioned His sacrifice for the world, showing that He was not such a god as the others were; for to save the world is the work of God, not of a man deified by grace. As Christ says (xvii.19), I sanctity Myself, i.e., I sacrifice Myself, I offer Myself as a holy Victim.”
(4.) Maldonatus says: “He sanctified Me, i.e., He designated and destined Me to the office of Saviour,” referring to Jer. i. 5, though the truer meaning of the passage is different, as I have there stated.
37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. He appeals to the miracles which He wrought by the command and supernatural power of God the Father. For these, as being divine, proved Him to be the very Son of God.
38. But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father, and I in the Father, working by the same Godhead and omnipotence which I have received from Him. Accordingly S. Augustine, Cyril, Leontius, &c., consider that the words, “I in the Father and the Father in Me,” mean the same as “I and the Father are one.” S. Augustine says (in loc.), “We are in God, and God in us. But can we say, ‘I and God are one?’ Thou art in God, because God containeth thee; God is in thee, because thou art made the temple of God. But because thou art in God, and God in thee, canst thou therefore say, ‘He who seeth God seeth Me,’ as the only Begotten said, ‘He that seeth Me, seeth the Father also, and I and the Father are one?’ Recognise what is proper to the Lord, and also the duty of the servant. What is proper to the Lord is equality with the Father; the duty of the servant is to be partaker of the Saviour.”
39. They sought therefore to take him; and he escaped out of their hands. “That their anger might be appeased by His withdrawal,” says S. Chrysostom. S. Augustine, acutely but symbolically, “They took Him not, because they had not the hand of faith.” He escaped by His Divine Power, making Himself invisible. As He did, viii. 59.
40. And he went again beyond the Jordan, into that place where John was baptizing first; and there he abode. In Bethabara, or Bethania, where Christ was baptized by him. He afterwards baptized in Ænon (see chap. iii. 23), frequently shifting His abode. He went through other districts of Jordan, He withdrew to Bethabara, that the people who followed Him thither might call to mind the testimony which John had borne to Him on the very spot, and also the testimony of God the Father at His baptism, and might on this account believe in Him. So S. Chrysostom.
and there he abode: till the Passover and his own Passion drew nigh, when He returned to Jerusalem, and raised up Lazarus, which provoked the scribes and rulers against Him.
41. And many resorted to him, and they said: John indeed did no sign. And yet we believed him. Therefore we ought the more firmly to believe in Jesus, who proves that He is the Messiah by so many signs and miracles. So S. Chrysostom.
There was also another reason for their believing in Christ; namely, that they found Him to be mightier than John in His miracles, in the power of His discourses, in His holiness of life, as John had foretold. And hence they inferred, If we see that the other things which John spake of Him are true, it is therefore equally true (as he said) that Jesus was the Messiah.
42. But all things whatsoever John said of this man, were true. And many believed in him. And many believed on Him, for doubtless, as S. Augustine says, “they apprehended Him when He was tarrying with them, and not as the Jews wished to apprehend Him, as He was going away. Let us therefore by the lamp attain to the day; for John was a lamp, and bore witness to the day.”
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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